My three favourite subscriptions (yes, they’re all food)
And we went camping
The three best food subscriptions of 2024*
It’s that time of year! The time when buying things ramps up a notch because it’s the holiday season so there are sales galore and presents to buy (and while you’re at it, why not add a little something for yourself so you can get to the amount you need to qualify for free shipping). So in the spirit of gift guides and spending money, here are my three favourite food subscriptions (because everything is a subscription these days — there are even podcasts about this trend).
Our CSA (community supported agriculture) box from Yasukochi Family Farms. Every Wednesday I get a box delivered to my doorstep and it’s filled with excellent quality and delicious fruits and vegetables. We’ve been getting CSA boxes from them since 2020 and I don’t have a single bad word to say about them. The produce is fantastic, with great variety, and their customer service is excellent. If you’re in San Diego, I highly recommend them. If you’re not in San Diego, I would still suggest searching for a local CSA or farmers co-op where you can buy locally grown and seasonal produce. Support small farms and businesses, and get delicious food to boot.
Monthly chicken subscription from Pasturebird. Every month I get one whole chicken, two packets of chicken breasts, and six packets of chicken thighs delivered. I’ve been getting chicken from them since 2021, and have experimented with different amounts and cuts of chicken ordered (you can customise what you subscribe to), and this is the amount that works for us right now. Their chicken is delicious, and I’ve never had any problems with woody chicken (I’ve seen a lot of complaints about woody chicken from Costco and supermarkets on reddit) or with a guilty conscience over how the chickens were raised. The kids like this chicken more than the chicken we order when we go out to eat.
The Rancho Gordo Bean Club. Every quarter I get a delivery of six packets of dried beans/lentils and I’ve discovered that this is about perfect for the amount of beans we eat. I sometimes order extra beans if there are beans I really really want that didn’t come in the order, or if we ate them particularly quickly that month and need more beans (don’t you always need more beans?). The quarterly bean delivery is such a joy!
I will admit that these subscriptions are not as sexy or exciting as a snack box or cheese subscription, but these are extremely practical subscriptions. I’m all about practicality (and groceries) these days.
Camping food
Over the Thanksgiving break we went camping for the first time as a family. It was my first time camping since 2016, and the first time for the kids. We went with one other family (also with kids) and everyone had a grand old time. The food, I thought, was great — everything tastes better when you’re camping. We brought a camping stove, an esky (cooler), and enough food for the two nights and days we were there.
Dinner night one
I made packets of hobo stew at home before we left, and we cooked them over the campfire that night. For my hobo stew packets, I started by making the bowls out of aluminium foil. I sprinkled salt, pepper, and garlic powder in the bottom of the al foil boil (so the meat was seasoned on both sides), then added a quarter of a pound of ground beef. More salt, pepper, garlic powder was sprinkled over the top of the meat. Then I added thinly sliced potato and onion slices. More salt, pepper, garlic powder. Then topped with some sharp cheddar (we had a block of sharp cheddar that I just cut chunks/slices from). All of that was wrapped up neatly in the little al foil packet and later that evening, after an hour on the fire, we had a delicious dinner.
Before we left on the trip I’d also cut up capsicums, cucumbers, and carrots so we had veg to go with our dinners and lunches that required no cooking or prep when we were there.
Dinner night two
Before we left for camping, I’d made a pot of chilli. I froze portions of that into ziplock bags, and on the second night we heated it up in a pot on the camping stove. I had also made sourdough dinner rolls and a loaf of sandwich bread so we had bread to go with the chilli.
Breakfasts
We brought eggs so those were scrambled and eaten with bread for breakfasts (the second morning we also had chilli that we hadn’t finished the night before; even when camping there are leftovers).
Lunches
Bread, peanut butter, honey. Apples, bananas, mandarins. Super simple.
One of my favourite parts about camping food is the limited options we could give to the kids. Complaining about being hungry? This was the food we have. There wasn’t a well-stocked fridge or pantry for them to raid, and fewer options than they were used to. They could either eat the food we brought or go hungry. And they ate it. (To be fair I brought food that they usually like and eat, and they seemed happy enough with what we fed them. But I really liked being able to answer ‘Nothing.’ to the question of ‘What else is there to eat?’).
*I suppose technically this shouldn’t be the best subscriptions of 2024 because none of these are things I started subscribing to in 2024. They’re not new. I’ve subscribed to and loved them for years. But ‘of 2024’ seems to be the thing to add to headings in December so there it is. I continued subscribing to these in 2024 so I reckon that counts.